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Hamster Power

Researchers believe they have conducted the first instance of an animal producing current with nano-generators, by harnessing the power of exercising hamsters. Plus -- the answer to the question that has weighed on the greatest minds for generations: how many hamsters does it take to power a cell phone? Also in today's links: where American ideas come from, where methane in the Arctic is going, and more.

This Pill Will Change Your Life

Gaming Addiction a Growing Concern

In a famous scene in the first Matrix movie, a character takes a bite out of a juicy steak. He knows it's not real, but enjoys it anyway. In some ways, a video game -- just moving pixels on the screen -- is a similar virtual reality experience. No, the aliens in Halo 3 are not real, but we pretend they are. That is how a game can pull you from a living-room couch into a foreign realm.

Say I'm Inside the Large Hadron Collider and It's Revving Up. Should I Be Concerned?

Well, it's never a great idea to stand next to a machine that could create black holes, but the magnets that steer the proton beams around the planet's most powerful particle accelerator would probably spare you from excess radiation. Then again, there is the off chance that some 300 trillion protons could erupt from the device and kill you on the spot.

A New Dawn for Solar Energy

It doesn’t take a stellar imagination to figure out the main downside of solar power. For years, the question of how to store the energy generated when the sun is shining for use at night has prevented solar power from becoming a viable alternative energy source. However, a new breakthrough may have overcome that storage problem, opening the door for solar energy on a grand scale.